Of Children, Gardens, and Riding Heifers

8/03/07 - 6th Day - Preparation of the Sabbath. We received 1/4 of an inch of rain over the last couple of days - which was nice. Yesterday was like a nice, cool, fall day. My youngest daughter turned 4 years old yesterday. We do not celebrate birthdays, but I had fun teasing her all day about getting old. I asked her how old she would be next August 2nd and she said, "16". Then she asked me when she would be able to have a baby "like Mrs. Sustaire" (our friend here in the community who had a beautiful baby girl this past Sabbath). Little Sarah never ceases to amaze me with the things she will say. Yesterday, Danielle found a small box turtle and brought it home to the girls. We were sitting on the porch enjoying the cool of the day when we heard Sarah squeal "It's a box turtle so put it in a box!".

Today we will be picking green beans and tomatoes again - and probably canning some more. I was organizing the root cellar the other day and so far we have had a fairly good year in food preparation.

Pita update

Ok, so on tuesday we put the saddle on Pita again. She was so calm and submissive with it that I had Chris Woods put Jennifer up in the saddle. Pita didn't seem to care one bit, so I led her around for 10 minutes or so before bringing her back to the corral. Pita was so calm and pleasant about it that we decided to start doing a little more and more each day. On Wednesday we walked her around a bit longer, then on Thursday I put Tracy (who is 14 and weighs quite a bit more than Jennifer) on Pita. Pita handled it fine, so we went on a long walk, then I put Tracy AND Jennifer on her, and she handled that like a champ too. Yesterday the girls were busy cleaning up so Danielle volunteered to ride Pita, so we saddled Pita up and Danielle got on board and we went for a long walk up to the Sifford's land to see the progress on their new barn. When we got up there Danielle dismounted, we tied off Pita to graze some and did a tour of the barn construction. Pita did all of this remarkably well. When we got back to her for the return trip, she stood dutifully as Danielle remounted and I went to go untie her from the tree. Well, when Pita saw me turn my back for a second, and she thought I was not holding on to the rope, she bolted (or something scared her). Danielle did good to stay on, but then the saddle started to twist and she decided it would be better to bail off than to maybe get trampled. I had the rope at this time and quickly Pita settled down. Danielle hit pretty hard, but she popped up and said everything was alright. She dusted herself off and climbed back on and we took the walk home. It wasn't until later that she started to bruise a bit on her leg and she was stiffening up. Anyway, both PIta and Danielle handled the whole deal well, and we will be much more careful during this training process. Pita will probably have to be several months older and bigger before I can get on her, but we will keep her training going in the meantime. One day, Lord willing, it will be a remarkable sight as we ride Pita around the land and in the area. We are already planning on buying her a saddle with saddle bags - and I am planning on either building or buying a wagon for her soon as well. She is so calm and compliant that I am sure she will continue to do well.

I hope all is well with you all, we are looking forward to a quiet, peaceful, restful sabbath here on the ranch.

Michael Bunker